London 2012 Olympics tickets: how to buy them online - it’s not too late

With the London 2012 Olympics all but upon us, you’re probably in one of two camps. The first - let’s call it the Happy Camp - is a group who have tickets to the Olympic Games, are thoroughly excited and getting more and more so as the time draws near. Well done you.

The second - let’s refer to this camp as Camp Envy - is those with none, and they’ll either be openly quite gutted about the whole thing or jealous to the point of Olympic bashing. Well, what if we were to tell you that there were tickets still on sale and not just for the football? In fact, you can get London 2012 tickets for just about any sport you want. Here’s how:

London 2012 official site

Yes, that’s right. Your eyes are not deceiving you. There are tickets on sale for the Olympic Games this very minute on the official London 2012 website. Go and have a look if you don’t believe us.

The Games ticket office sent out an email a few days back to tell everyone, who’d registered, that there were more available, but it’s an announcement that seems to have gone largely unnoticed - unsurprising given that it’s the 70th email we’ve received from London 2012 Ticketing since first registering with the site in 2011 - we kid you not. It all seems to be down to returns and, whether from abroad or domestic, unwanted tickets are making their way back.

The London 2012 Tickets website adds them in fits and starts throughout the days, so you just have to check in every now and then and see what’s available. The good news is that just about everything turns up at one stage or another; the bad is that pairs of seats are quite hard to come by in the bigger events. Most of what goes back on sale is generally top category as well, so it can cost you a fair bit. On the other hand, pricey tickets do ensure fantastic view of the action.

For example the sports that were available at the time of writing are: Badminton, Basketball, Beach Volleyball, Boxing, Canoeing, Diving, Fencing, Football, Trampoline, Handball, Hockey, Sailing, Swimming, Table Tennis, Taekwando, Tennis, Volleyball, Weightlifting, Opening Ceremony and Closing Ceremony. In short, that’s just about everything except Athletics, Cycling and Gymnastics but, as we say, don’t get disheartened because tickets to those last three do pop up every now and then. In fact, we’ve just looked and there’s two for Athletics events, so there you go.

Craigslist

It’s not possible to buy and sell Olympics 2012 tickets on eBay in UK or Ireland and whether or not you can on Gumtree is unclear but either way it’s a dead loss, so don’t worry. Nonetheless, there is a thriving second-hand market for Olympic Games tickets and it’s on Craigslist where most of the action is happening.

You can get just about anything you want but, naturally, you’ll usually have to pay more than face value. That said, as time goes on, and people still can’t shift their Table Tennis seats, expect prices to fall. You don’t have to be lightening quick to bag yourself tickets to the 100m final. What tends to happen is that a poster will wait for people to make offers and then choose the biggest one. It’s not very nice. Sealed bids are fun only for the vendor but, fortunately, there are some cooler cats out there who’ll tell you not only how much they’d like up front but whether prices are negotiable. Tip: prices are always negotiable.

If you’d rather filter out the sharks, then search by owner rather than dealer on the options but do beware that it’s not just the touts who are looking to make a profit. Like we say, prices should dip a little as the events draw near, so keep your schedule flexible and your eyes open.

What’s more, remember to think out of the box a little when it comes to your search. While browsing Craigslist UK might seem the ticket, there’s plenty of sessions up for sale in the US as well. We took a look at pages from other countries but the rest of the EU doesn’t seem that keen on the site.

eBay

Hang on a minute, didn’t we just tell you that you couldn’t buy London 2012 tickets on eBay? Well, yes and no. You can’t get them on eBay UK and Ireland but go and take a look at international eBay sites and you’ll find no such restrictions there.

The rules, as far as eBay is concerned, clearly state that anyone selling Olympic Games tickets may not sell to buyers in the UK or Ireland. So, what you’ll have to do is either get them mailed to someone you know abroad who can then post them on to you or email the vendors separately and see if they’ll do you a deal off-eBay. The best markets seem to be on Dutch, German and US eBay but, obviously, do bear in mind that you don’t have long left to get them this way given that, in some cases, you’ll need to leave time for two lots of postage as well as time for the auction to end.

General

You can pretty much still buy whatever Olympics 2012 tickets you like online and not at totally unreasonable prices. Always check how much the tickets are at face value by using the London 2012 Tickets website before you get an idea of how much more you might be prepared to pay. If you want to be extra safe, only bid on items where they actually have photographs of the tickets and do check how much good feedback vendors have if you’re using eBay. Craigslist is slightly shadier but, so long as you meet in person or use PayPal, you should be ok.

Finally, don’t panic. There are a vast number of tickets for the London 2012 Olympic Games still out there and we fully expect face value sales or possibly better if you can be leave it to the day and take whatever sport comes your way. Happy hunting and good luck Team GB.